A Final Day of Mourning

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The three-day send-off to Joe Paterno wraps up Thursday in State College.

Many people from our area have made the trip to Happy Valley to say their final farewells to JoePa and attend a memorial service Thursday afternoon.

Tens of thousands of people have been flocking to Penn State to mourn the passing of Joe Paterno.

Once again a big crowd is expected at a memorial service on campus for the legendary coach.

It's called "A Memorial for Joe." The memorial service for Joe Paterno starts at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The numbers the past few days have been huge. Around 35,000 people went to the viewing for Joe Paterno, and many more than that lined the route of his funeral procession. Now today, more than 10,000 people will be attending his memorial service.

This is the third and final day of official mourning for Joe Paterno and before heading into a memorial for Joe, Penn Staters from our area stopped at the JoePa memorial outside Beaver Stadium.

It is running out of room for flowers and mementos.

"My niece and nephew are both up here so they are both going along with me to the memorial service," said Danadee Miller-Boyle of Lehighton. She can't help but get emotional. "I live my life and conduct my life by words of wisdom that Joe Paterno gave to us. I really do."

While tens of thousands of people hoped to get inside the Jordan Center, there is only so much room. Penn State said there was such demand for the service that more than 10,000 free tickets went in only seven minutes on Tuesday.

Those that got them feel fortunate.

"You do have to be here. We took off work today to be part of this today to have this in our memory for ever," said Marlene Coyle of Pottsville.

There are others from our area and all over the state who did not get the tickets. They came anyway. They felt the need to be here.

"I would like to have a way in. We're going to walk around, if we get tickets we're definitely going," said Barbara Keninitz of Ashland.